Eu:Cropis

Eu:CROPIS (Euglena: Closed Regenerative Organic food Production In Space) is a satellite mission scheduled for launch in 2016. Main payload are two greenhouses each as a pressurized closed loop system simulating the environmental conditions of the Moon or Mars and also on long duration missions. Numerous cameras and sensors will observe the growth of tomatoes in space. This mission will run for a year. In order to simulate the differing levels of gravity a 250 kg lightweight satellite has been designed to rotate around its longitudinal axis while orbiting at an altitude of roughly 600 km. Depending on the rotational speed the satellite is able to replicate

lunar gravity, that is 0.16 times Earth's, or

0.38 times – the gravity on Mars.

Eu:CROPIS carries two other experiments:

Collecting data on long-term exposure to cosmic radiation over the course of the space flight (DLR)

Experiment to measure photosynthesis in algae (NASA)

The satellite mission is initiated by DLR Programmdirektion Weltraum with overall mission responsibility by DLR RY (Bremen). Similarly to the BIRD mission, DLR shows its ability to design, develop, launch and operate a satellite completely on its own. The scientific part of the mission is under supervision of DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine and the University of Erlangen. The ground segment consists of DLR Space Operations with the ground station Weilheim and GSOC as control center.